A psychologically rich life: Beyond happiness and meaning.

Why the super rich are inevitable

Why some mathematicians argue the economy is designed to create a few super rich people – unless we stop it.

Could Shades of Asperger’s be the Secret to Becoming a Billionaire?

Success always leaves clues…

Successful People With ADHD Superpowers

Explore stories of successful people who have harnessed their ADHD superpowers to achieve greatness.

Capital Must Seek Delight

Too few people are experiencing the delights and serendipity of AI, causing capital misallocation

Revisiting evidence for an attentional tunneling effect caused by scarcity

People in poverty sometimes behave in ways that perpetuate their socioeconomic condition. By one influential account, these behaviors arise from psychological effects of scarcity on attention that create greater focus toward managing scarce resources, at the cost of attention to potentially-beneficial information outside of this ‘tunnel’. Although the tunneling hypothesis has been widely discussed in academia and beyond, its direct empirical support derives primarily from a landmark study by Shah et al. (2012) in which participants played games while their access to resources was experimentally manipulated, rendering participants either ‘rich’ or ‘poor’. Here, we present new analyses that contest the original interpretation of the data, showing that the behavioral differences between ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ participants are more parsimoniously explained by the game’s structure than by an attentional shift caused by the scarcity manipulation—a conclusion we substantiate through an additional experiment. We contextualize our findings within the literature on scarcity and attention, and highlight the need for greater clarity regarding the tunneling hypothesis itself.

The attention market—and what is wrong with it

Attention is described as a “scarce commodity” that is traded in “a marketplace.” This, it is further claimed, contributes to a “widespread sense of attentional crisis.” But is there really an attention market, and if so, what, if anything, is wrong with it? We defend the claim that there are markets in attention. We provide an account of such attention markets and use that account to address what is morally wrong with them. Our account draws on knowledge of how attention works and what roles it plays in the mind. The attention market trades in an ability to influence our attention – somewhat (though not exactly) like the labor market trades in an ability to influence how we use our capacity for work. Specifically, the commodity it trades in is attentional landscaping potential, viz. the ability to systematically influence patterns of attention by changes to the sensory environment individuals are exposed to. Attention markets thus, we argue, commodify influence over a human capacity that plays a central role in shaping individual experience, agency, and belief formation. This feature of attention markets makes them ethically problematic. As markets in access to external influence, attention markets pose a special threat to individual autonomy and escape the classical liberal defense of free markets. Those who value autonomy should worry about the attention markets that exist today.

Why efficiency is dangerous and slowing down makes life better | Psyche Ideas

The urge to do everything faster and better is risky. Far wiser to do what’s good enough for the range of possible futures

Systems: How the Ultra-Wealthy Think About Money - Anil Dash

A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

How to Get Rich in America

on wealth vs labor and ownership vs effort

Opinion | Love People, Not Pleasure (Published 2014)

What do fame, wealth and lots of sex bring? Exactly the opposite of what you think.

Sanela Jahić – Under the Calculative Gaze - Aksioma

Price: 0€ AI completes the enclosure that the autonomists called the social factory, where capitalist relations of power extend to the smallest corner of social reproduction. But the very generalisability of these algorithmic exploitations creates the ground for a recomposition of resistance from forms of relationality that still escape the algorithmic gaze. ― Dan McQuillan […]

How Cultivating Awe Can Save the World — Douglas Rushkoff

The best-kept but scientifically-validated secret for engendering generosity

How the hypercuriosity of ADHD may have helped humans thrive | Aeon Essays

ADHD isn’t merely a dysfunction. It’s best understood as an impulsive motivational drive for novel information

How the hypercuriosity of ADHD may have helped humans thrive | Aeon Essays

ADHD isn’t merely a dysfunction. It’s best understood as an impulsive motivational drive for novel information